THE PAST TENSE
VERY USEFUL WEBSITE FOR TENSES: www.verbix.com
1.
In English, give some examples of when you could use the past tense;
2.
Ask your mentor to tell you some useful regular and irregular verbs in the past tense. You should make some
suggestions in English e.g. I danced, We wrote. Don’t ask for any explanations yet. Write the verbs in the space below
and see if you can notice any patterns.
Regular verbs
3.
Irregular verbs
Can you complete the following table for your language?
I played
You (informal) played
He played
She played
It played
We played
You (formal/plural) played
They (masc./fem.?) played
I went
You (informal) went
He went
She went
It went
We went
You (formal/plural) went
They (masc./fem.?) went
4.
“Regular verbs” follow some sort of pattern. Ask your mentor to show you how to form regular verbs in the past tense
in your language and make some notes here. In particular, you may want to note down endings of groups of regular
verbs.
5.
“Irregular verbs” don’t follow a pattern. We need to learn them. Use the space below to note any useful irregular verbs
in the past tense in your language;
6.
What other important things have you learnt about the present tense in your language? How is the past tense
similar/different to the past tense in English.